A Tale of the False Utopia
The area was dimly lit. It had an eerie sort of feel to is as a shadowed figure took his seat on the throne. "Bring him in." Upon the command, and almost as if he was the Christian deity itself, the door leading into the room swung open. Two soldiers wielding rifles stepped in first, their guns holstered upon seeing the shadowed figure sitting comfortably on his throne. Then, they stepped aside as a new figure came into the room, breathing heavily. He was clutching his left arm, which was enveloped into a bandage-made cast. Its white color was partially stained with red, giving it a rather shuddering appearance. His unhurt arm was limp at his side. What would've been shown as red eyes seemed to have been hidden under his hood, an otherwise intimidating crimson light extinguished. But despite his heavy breathing, he refused to show any of his pain as he walked up to his superior. Once he got in range, he stooped to a kneel, unaffected hand pressing its knuckles to the ground. "You have requested my services, my Lord?" He spoke in a tone that was completely devoid of any humanity, cold and mechanical to the very listening touch. Despite the man's hight status, his voice sounded surprisingly young. "Remove your hood when you are within my presence Damian." "O...oh course..." Only slightly taken back, the hooded man reached up to grasp the lining of his own hood. He stopped for a moment, however, as if hesitant to pull it off. But then, he was in the presence of his superior, one who would never bother with such trivial things as his worry. Along with his reluctance to defy orders, he could be assured that his Lord would not squander his personal problems. That confidence gave him the go-ahead to completely take off his hood. Surprisingly, it was not a machine underneath, but a human face. The skin was pale, having been hidden from the sunlight for so long. Long, black hair was covering up the upper portion of his face, partially able to block his eyes from view. His crimson eyes stared up blankly at the man sitting in the chair, careful to express no emotion as he turned to his formal kneeling position. "Nice to see that you are indeed human." The king murmured. "Now for the reason I called you here. I request a status update on the hunt for the Kurosaki Woman." Damian closed his eyes, mulling over what had happened. "The search was aborted, my Lord." He spoke bitterly, the pain in his arm turning into an annoyingly throbbing ache. "While I and my escort soldiers were questioning those who could've known her location, we were ambushed and my soldiers were dispatched." "Ambushed?" By whom?" "....a squad of rebel citizens." More and more, Damian was growing reluctant to give the king the recent news and events. "The traitor was leading them." "The traitor? Ah... I remember him.." The king replied. "If it was him, then your failure this time is excusable." Damian took in a deep breath, anger swelling within him. But he kept his voice controlled. "Such a mistake will NOT happen again, my Lord. The next time I see him, I will crush him personally under my foot!" He said wrathfully. "He'll die, along ''with those damned outsiders!!"'' "Then I leave it to you." The king replied. "Make sure you do not fail again." "Yes, sir...will that be all?" "That is all." Having no more words to say, Damian silently stood up, all of his prideful anger gone from his body. He placed his hand on his sunken hood, ready to pull it back up as he walked out. To have anyone see his face, the only sign of a human behind the soldier, would be a weakness that he would gladly kill himself for. He was not to be human, but a tool that was never supposed to get rusty, the hound that would never stop hunting as long as its master commanded. He could never allow even a speck of life to cross past his dead fingers. Ardish and Suki were waiting for their leader outside the throne room. "What did the King want?" Suki asked, Ardish as silent as ever. "A report of what happened in the city." Damian replied, but in a voice colder than he intended to be. Briskly, he walked past the two siblings and in another direction, cloak billowing behind him. Suki ran after him, Ardish after her. "Are you in trouble?" A sneer came across the general's face, despite it behing hidden under his hood. He turned his hood to stare at his female subordinate disdainfully. "You should be worrying about other things, Suki, then my status." He retorted. "Like I was worried." Suki snapped back. "Just curious." That caused Damian to immediately snap. With a simple turn of his heel, and a single step forward, he was right in Suki's face, his disdainful stare now turning into nothing but a look that could've killed it was a weapon. This, along with his voice, caused fear to spike through his subordinate. "Unless you want to be taken down to the prison and ''knotted to death, I suggest you never use that kind of tone with me again."'' He spat, not holding back even a single shred of the malevolence within him. "Remember your place, girl." Upon this, he turned back around, and was off again. Suki scowled in his direction, and was about to pull out her gun and shoot him, but Ardish gripped her wrist and shook his head. Reluctantly, she put the gun back. It was a day of norm in the headquarters of the Yuurei Oukoku. As Damian and his two bodyguards moved through several hallways, the soldiers and workers that acknowledged their presence were so cautious as to immediately step to the walls in order to allow them passage. Their eyes, mixed with fear and respect, gazed upon the intimidating figure of Damian as he marched by. Such was the normal way to see Damian; not as a human, but rather the general who instilled fear into the very heart of Yuurei itself. Suki was laughing inside her head, at these people showing such fear and respect towards one man. To her it was amusing. Damian himself ignored such looks, for he had gotten used to, and was possibly fueled by such. Right now, however, the only thing he was concerned about was quelling that troublemaker who dared to wound him so grievously. Juushin. Stopping by a seemingly random door, he shoved it open. It was an office like room, yet still held that military feel to it. It was quite massive, and at least several workers and officials were inside, having worked on things like paperwork and city monitoring. However, the work abruptly stopped when the general forced his way in, stopping to look at him with widened eyes. "What is he doing?" Suki wondered. Damian folded his hands behind his back. "I want the monitor of Prison Outpost 343 up here, on the double!" He barked, glowering at all of them. It was only seconds later that a person scrambled to his front. It was a young man, only in his twenties. He himself was in uniform, but unlike many of the soldiers that were there, he was unarmed. And it was apparent that he was not a soldier, for he was shaking slightly out of his fear. This did not phase Damian's cold glare that was sent in his direction. "I hope, for your sake, you incompetent fool, you are NOT slacking off in your duties." Damian snapped, causing the man to gasp. "N-no, sir, I would never--" "For five consecutive days, the consistent report of your prison has stopped completely. I have not recieved word from its co-manager, even after attempts to get in direct contact with him. Tell me, why is it that it seems like prison activity has stopped there COMPLETELY?" "...." "Have you gone deaf? Answer me!" "...there was an attack, sir, by a group of rebels. They captured the co-manager and escaped--" WHAM! The back of Damian's hand slapped the man's face so hard, he was sent flying into and over the desks, which caused the surrounding people to back up. But the general did not show any remorse, turning on his heel. "Expect to be punished severely for your incompetence and failure to inform me earlier." He said coldly, before leaving the room of stunned individuals. Ardish's eye twitched at this display, but he made no move to stop the general. "Ardish! Suki!" Damian said immediately after exiting. "We're heading towards Prison Camp 343 in order to find out what the hell went on." He walked briskly down the hall, presumably in the direction of the base hangar. "We're going to find out where those rebel terrorists went to." "Alright. Sounds like this'll be fun." Suki grinned, her annoyance with Damian fading for the moment. Ardish look surprised. He hadn't known that Yuurei had even had Prison Camps, but kept up his silence. It did not take him long before they reached the area where they needed to be; the hangar. With hands uncaring, Damian shoved the door open and stepped inside. Making up the majority of the vehicles there was a type of flying, metallic bird. It seemed as if it was once a living thing; there were small signs of biological organs and components within. But the majority of it was replaced by nothing but metal and machine, fitted to serve its purpose within the Yuurei army. Damian hopped on one of them, motioning for his team to follow. Ardish looked around it curiously as he got on, Suki soon following. "Never seen something like this before." Suki commented. "Recent development?" She asked Damian. "A few years ago, it was developed." The general responded, hopping onto the neck of the beast. He sat near the neck area, taking two reins that would control where the beast would go. "Ever since the rebellion of last time, these were developed in order to keep surveillance from the air." He tugged on the reigns, and with a loud screech, the bird took off and into the air, slowly ascending. "Makes sense." Suki replied, trying to make herself comfortable as Ardish looked around curiously. "Hang on. This is going to be a rather bumpy ride." The bird increased its speed, abruptly plunging upwards in order to get more air faster. Damian himself had a bit of difficulty staying on, but he kept the speed constant. He wanted to get there as fast as possible; this was no time to be jerking around while warfare was going on in his city. The King's city. Juushin would pay for even stirring this up in the first place, for betraying his own soldiers over an act of mercy. When he got his hands on Juushin, he would definitely make him suffer. Suki sighed as they kept moving. She wanted to speak but Damian seemed absorbed in his thoughts. "Out with it, Suki." Damian's voice immediately sounded. "I'm no deaf ear to my subordinates." "It's nothing important sir." She said easily. "Pay me no mind for now." "Whatever you say..." With that, he turned back towards his flight path, eyes concentrating on the road ahead of him. Or rather, the sky, considering the road was hundreds of feet below. "How long is this going to take?" Suki thought. She had to ask, for the bird itself immediately descended. Or rather, it plummeted. Damian was steering it in a nose-dive, straight towards what looked like a network of buildings that seemed to stretch for miles. Damian himself seemed to be calm and composed, despite the possible feeling that his insides were lurching. His voice could only be heard on their communications radio. "Reports were called in that the rebel group escaped via another transport truck, so there should be track markings left on the ground. Once we do, we'll call in reinforcements on our position and follow the tracks. Understood?" "Understood." Suki replied, Ardish as silent as ever. It didn't take them long, due to the immense speed that the bird was going at. When it reached ground level, and to the decimated camp, it stopped, giving out a loud screech as it landed softly beside the entrance. Quickly, Damian allowed himself to get off of the bird. Suki and Ardish jumped off the bird as well, landing neatly. "How disgusting..." Damian seethed. There was a stench of rotting flesh in the air, several corpses of rebel and loyalist soldiers scattered across the cold ground. "The rebels even dared to defile this place with the stench of death. Such an annoying smell..." He looked all over the area, searching for those tire track marks. "Could have cremated them at least." Suki said, she and Ardish searching as well. "This is General Seken to Alpha 2-1." Damian immediately reported, as soon as his eyes came across the said tire tracks. "I'm requesting reinforcements on the double, at Prison Outpost 343. Get down here ASAP, over." "Roger that, reinforcements are on their way. Out." Damian promptly shut off his radio, turning towards his subordinates. "Now all we have to do is wait..." He stated, glaring down at the mass corpses in front of him. He made his way around the bird and over to them, drawing his blade out from his robe. Suki twirled her gun, grinning. "Do I get to shoot anything?" "When we actually get to the base, you can kill all the rebels you want." Was the cold reply. "Right now, I'm concerned about getting rid of these bodies." He raised his knife blade in the air. "For your own safety, step back." Suki did as her leader ordered, Ardish following fast. "Show no weakness, Jitsuryokusha." At first, the changes were seemingly harmless. The small knife blade pulsed once, before shifting into the shape of a regular katana sword. However, once Damian twisted the blade around and punched the blade through the ground, the effects were sudden. Bolts of lightning shot from the sky and struck the bodies in a brilliant display of fireworks. As the corpses were struck, the intense heat from the lightning incinerated and reduced them to piles of ash in several seconds. Damian pulled his sword from the ground, katana fading once again into the knife it used to be. "There... no more stench." He said in resolution, holstering the blade back into its sheath. "Um...whoa.." "It will take a while before the reinforcements arrive. Until then, stay sharp." "Of course." Suki replied, twirling her gun. Ardish's eyes scanned the area.